Self-navigation of STM tip toward a micron sized sample

Guohong Li; Adina Luican; Eva Y. Andrei

doi:10.1063/1.3605485

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arXiv · 1104.4170

Self-navigation of STM tip toward a micron sized sample

Guohong Li·Adina Luican·Eva Y. Andrei

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Abstract

We demonstrate a simple capacitive based method to quickly and efficiently locate micron size conductive samples on insulating substrates in a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). By using edge recognition the method is designed to locate and identify small features when the STM tip is far above the surface allowing for crash-free search and navigation. The method can be implemented in any STM environment even at low temperatures and in strong magnetic field, with minimal or no hardware modifications.

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Guohong Li, Adina Luican, Eva Y. Andrei. 2011-04-21. Self-navigation of STM tip toward a micron sized sample. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3605485

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